Projekt Wolfenstahl

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Customizable controls

Part 2 of the enemies (with sketches or pixel art samples) will come in the upcoming days.

I've read all the comments so far, and while I didn't initially plan on having human enemies, I hope that "mutated/possessed" humans will be okay?
The basic thought behind this is, that it should have an apocalypse like setting, and that humans should be considered "good" civilians that you might have to rescue.
So, having different human types that are good or evil "could" be confusing.
And making the evil ones look "evil" kinda goes along with making them look mutated/possessed (whatever).

I think it's better to have the player easily recognize what's "good" and what's "evil".
Though there will be one kind of trap-monster that disguises itself as a civilian.
(those will be reaaaaally rare though, and if you pay attention you should be able to distinguish them from civilians)

At least that's the theory behind it, and well... we'll see how it fits in the game.
(if stuff seems to be too frustrating or too confusing, we'll change it)

Customizable controls:

This time I thought it would be a good idea to include customizable controls into the game.
I tried including gamepad support too, but it seems that this is a bit more confusing to include...
So the best option would be to use JoyToKey if you like to use a gamepad for the game.
(I haven't used JoyToKey myself, but I've read/seen a lot of other games recommend it, I'll try it out myself during developement, but haven't done so yet)

"Maybe" I'll include full controller/gamepad support later on, but I'd say the chances are low that I actually do this.

Customizable keyboard controls are almost done, once I get to work on the menu they will be customizable in the options.
After that, all I need to do is to test it on several systems if it "really" works as intended.
(by that I mean... I'd better test it on several different PCs, notebooks etc... just to make sure it REALLY works... and yup, that will take some time, since I need to ask some friends of me to do the testing, and this is always time consuming)

To inform you about the controls:

ALL menu navigation is "mouse-controled".
It makes navigating the menu (as well as the programming) and a lot of other things considerably easier.
Besides that, you control the character with the keyboard (or gamepad with JoyToKey) only.

Following buttons are required:

- up
- down
- left
- right

- jump
- attack (close combat)
- special (ranged attack for Ferania; "if" we include several characters, there will be other functions too, depending on the character)

- pause
- menu (ESC)

The difference between "pause" and "menu" is, that pause will simply pause the game with a small "pause" notification (not in the middle of the screen).
While "menu" will pause the game and open a menu where you can choose to "save + quit" etc.

I guess I'll stop here, and go more into the details in a seperate blogpost.
Anyway, those are the "basics".

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

The upcoming blogpost will be most likely "Enemies (Part 2)", with sketches or pixel art.

Edit: Are the game over scenes going to have narrations like Geisterhand did? I really enjoyed that part of the game, but if the CG's are going to be animated then there may not be much of a point to the narration.

If we really use Offbeatr, we will set stretch goals for adding new characters, yes.The "idea" so far (this can still change) is to "finish" the game with Ferania alone, then go to Offbeatr, "sell" the game via Offbeatr and use the stretch goals to see what characters would be added to the game.So by that point, the basic game would already be fully functional, and the number of characters that could be added later on can range from zero to... I don't know... depends on how well the campaign goes.(I already thought about the next ~4-5 characters that "would" be added)

I don't know when the game will be released yet, we're currently not able to work "full-time" on this (jobs, hired work etc. getting in the way), so it's really difficult to estimate.But we're trying to make as much progress as possible.

If everything goes according to plan, we will include animated CGs, and we will have nearly no text at all.

Hi, glad to see that progress is moving along relatively smoothly. Ever since Paperheads was completed, I was wondering about whether or not it was possible to create an "evil ending" for a platformer. In Paperheads, what if the protagonist took over as the head of the organization in an alternate ending?

I'm surmising from the information you've given that in this game there is a demonic force invading the planet, so that's why there's the apocalypse. Humans are being possessed and mutating. Monsters are wreaking havoc. Could there be an ending scenario where Ferania joins the demons rather than from a game over? I have never seen it done.

Here's an example of how the idea could work (from my imagination): As Ferania fights her way through the city and reaches the end level in hell she battles the final boss, a female demon queen with a tiara. Upon being defeated by Ferania, the boss drops her tiara. Ferania observes this with dialogue, and then states that some dark force in the tiara is tempting her to wear it. She is then given the option to wear it or destroy it. If she destroys it, good ending with her saving the world. If she wears it, evil ending with her corrupted and transformed into a demon queen, thereby continuing the invasion. CG of her standing proudly as a demon queen with her new army behind her or something.